Lifelong Benefits of Childhood Friends

Men who spent more time hanging out with friends as children had lower blood pressure and were less likely to be obese in adulthood, finds a study in Psychological Science. Researchers analyzed data from 267 participants in the Pittsburgh Youth Study, which followed a racially diverse sample of boys starting in 1987. The researchers found that boys who spent more time with their peers (as assessed by parent report) went on to have lower blood pressure and lower BMIs, on average, when they reached their early thirties. The effect remained significant even after accounting for childhood BMI and other measures of childhood physical health, childhood socio-economic status, extraversion and the participants’ self-reported social support in adulthood. (Monitor on Psychology)